''Downloaded'' is a documentary film directed by Alex Winter about the downloading generation and the impact of

filesharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or E-book, electronic books. Common methods of Computer data storage, storage, Data tran ...

on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. A teaser of the film premiered at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

on March 14, 2012.VH1 Rock Docs To Host SXSW Panel, Premiere Two New Films In Austin
Elizabeth Black, '' VH1'', February 28, 2012 The

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

made its world premiere at SXSW on March 10, 2013, and was shown at other film festivals around the world.'Downloaded,' film on music downloading, at SXSW
'' El Paso Times'', March 10, 2013 VH1 partnered with AOL to distribute the film widely and was broadcast as a ''VH1 Rock Docs'' feature in late 2014.VH1’s Emmy Award-Winning “Rock Docs” Franchise ANNOUNCES NEW Programming slate FOR 2014
, VH1 Press Room, January 16, 2014VH1 Rock Doc Downloaded To Premiere At South By Southwest
'' VH1'', January 15, 2013Napster Documentary 'Downloaded' to Premiere at SXSW Film Fest
Anita Li, ''

Mashable Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...

'', January 20, 2013

Plot

This documentary film addresses the evolution of digital media sharing on the Internet. It features exclusive interviews with software developers and musicians about controversial filesharing software, and particularly Napster.Video: Trailer from the Napster Movie, Downloaded
Eliot Van Buskirk, ''evolver.fm'', December 7, 2012 It follows Napster from its rise in 1999, through the swarm of lawsuits that ensued and to its acquisition by Rhapsody in 2011. Some of those interviewed include Henry Rollins, Billy Corgan, former

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

founder

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

, former

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

Chairman Don Ienner, former CEO of the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Hilary Rosen,

Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...

’ Mike D,

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

frontman Trent Reznor, and Noel Gallagher.Alex Winter Debuts Downloaded Trailer
James White, ''Empire'', December 7, 2012

Development

Alex Winter met

Shawn Fanning Shawn Fanning (born November 22, 1980) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer file sharing, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing platforms, in 1999. The populari ...

in 2002 and originally set out to write a narrative feature, but he became interested in the many different sides of the story there was to tell. Nearly 10 years after Winter first discussed making the film with Napster founders, Fanning and Parker, he was wrapping up interviews and filmed some of the final footage and interviews at the SXSW Conference in 2012.

Promotion

A trailer for the film was released on December 7, 2012. On March 12, 2013, following the world premiere at SXSW, there was a panel discussion including director Alex Winter and Napster co-founders

and Sean Parker. The film subsequently screened within such festivals as

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...

and Maryland Film Festival, with Alex Winter hosting screenings.

Release

The film made its theatrical premiere on June 21, 2013, at

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

’s Village East Cinema, followed by showings in other select cities. It was released digitally on July 1, 2013.

Reception

Box office

''Downloaded'' opened in limited release on June 21, 2013, and grossed $2,504 at the box office its opening weekend from two theaters.

Critical reception

''Downloaded'' received mixed reviews from movie critics upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 56, based on 6 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" feedback.http://www.metacritic.com/movie/downloaded Critic Reviews for Downloaded.

. Retrieved 9 July 2013. , the film holds a 69% approval rating on film review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on thirteen reviews with an average rating of 6.54 out of 10. Joe Neumaier from the New York's '' Daily News'' called it "A fascinating, alternate-universe look at the dawn of the music-sharing phenom." On July 1, 2013, ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' rated it #6 on the "Best Movies of 2013 (So Far)" list. On the other hand, Alan Scherstuhl of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' stated, "The doc is only about as revealing as a middling magazine article on the subject."

References

External links

*
''Official Downloaded'' Facebook Page
* {{Alex Winter 2013 films 2013 documentary films VH1 films American musical documentary films Documentary films about the Internet Films about freedom of expression Documentary films about computer and internet entrepreneurs Films directed by Alex Winter Films produced by Alex Winter Films with screenplays by Alex Winter 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films